Fun little trip to the Gunks this weekend in spite of the oppressive heat. If nothing else it kept the crowds away. Took my friend up for his first time climbing anything taller than one pitch and he did great. Started off the weekend on Strictly From Nowhere at dusk Friday Evening. Iíd done it before and it was close enough to the entrance to get us out of the Trapps shortly after dark so it made for a good start.

Saturday we slugged our way out to Sleepy Hollow and started the day on Trigger Point before seeking out Wegetables, which I pussed out on because I didnít have anything to sufficiently protect the bottom. Iíll have to go back out again with some tiny pro I guess, or just sack up and climb to gear. From there we did Directissima to High E, which almost unbelievably was completely empty. It was the first time Iíd done Directissima, and I have to say I liked it a lot. I thought the traverse itself was harder than the big move at the end of it, but Iím kinda lanky so that may have made it a bit easier.

After topping out High E we called it a day, completely exhausted from the rigors of climbing in the heat. Back at camp as we were relaxing I talked my friend into walking out to have a look at Bird Cage, something Iím very interested in climbing. On the way out to the climb we passed a guy on Fat City Direct who seemed to be having some difficulties. On the way back to camp he was still there. For a moment I tried to walk by. I was exhausted, had half a buzz, wanted to go to sleep. But I couldnít let it go. So I turned around and asked if they needed help. The guy was halfway up, right around what I understood to be the crux. My first thought was that his partner tried to drag him up a route he couldnít do. They couldnít communicate at all thanks to the roofs so I agreed to take one message to the top of the cliff. I told the guy to make it good because I wasnít about to keep going back and forth communicating for them. He wanted the other guy to tie him off so he could descend on a single strand of the rope. Fine. Iíll tell him. As I scrambled toward the top I mulled this over in my tired little brain and began to wonder if it might be a bad idea. At this point however I thought if the dude at the top was competent enough to lead that line heíd be able to figure something out to get his partner down.

Well, when I got to the top I found out the real situation. It was their first time at the Nears. Theyíd just climbed Gelsa and were simply looking for a way back to the bottom of the cliff. They had one rope and no clue you could walk off. Now one was at the top and could not hear the guy at mid height at all. Crap. I talked to the dude at the top for a bit and could tell he was at the end of his wits. Heíd been climbing for about a year and was not at all psyched with his buddy down below who got him into this situation. Clearly no amount of relaying messages was going to get them to the bottom. Crap again. So I resigned to walk to the West Trapps parking lot and get my ropes and harness. I didnít want to. At all. But what else could I do? There was no one else at the cliff. It should also be noted that open air rappels are not my favorite. It was getting dark, my headlamp sucked, I was freakin beat, and as mentioned earlier feeling the slightest of a buzz. Still, it was the only way they were getting down.

On my way through camp I stopped at the ranger station. I mean these guys get paid to do this shit right? Unfortunately no one was there. Sigh. As I turned and walked off the porch I noticed two other dudes walking to their tent. Still trying to get out of doing this deed myself I asked them if by any chance they felt like plucking a dude off Fat City. They of course were from Quebec and English wasnít their first language, why should anything be easy? Fortunately the one dude was fluent enough to tell the other dude, who I guess guides in Quebec, what was going on. I was ecstatic to find out they had good headlamps, a tank full of energy, ropes and harnesses with them at camp, and a willingness to help. Whew. So these guys suited up and I showed them the way to the rappel and the guy at the top of the cliff. The one set a rap, tied in, and had the guy below safely on the ground in no time. Was super psyched I could help and super duper psyched I didnít have to rap down and get him myself. It actually all worked out pretty well.

Sunday was hot too. We started off the day on V-3, which Iíd never done before and found to be pretty damn cool. Getting into that notch requires some thought, although after the move is made itís laughable how easy it is to do. We then moved on to Three Doves which was in full sunlight and miserable. We bailed at the GT because Mr. Swainís description seemed unobvious and I wasnít exactly sure where the second pitch started and didnít have the desire to figure it out then sweat my way to the top. Now it was either find something in the shade or bail for home. I really, really wanted to do one more climb so we stopped at the Mac Wall to have a look at Something Interesting. It was just coming into the shade and there wasnít a soul around so we finished out our trip on that. Really, really cool climb. Iíve heard a lot of people say they think itís harder than .7, but I found it pretty chill. Possibly because of my aforementioned lankiness. Once back on the ground we packed our shit, hit the car, and went home. Great weekend.

I'd agree your height will hurt you a bit on the Directissima traverse and help for the reaches.. and for the reachy crux of Something Interesting.

both sweet routes though.

good job helping out the noobs.

i watched some gumbie at Rumney sunday doing some bullshit with a 4' dyneema sling when he still had like 4 quick draws on his harness.. i'm like just put 2 draws on it opposing and call it good. he didn't listen.. then proceeded to take another 5 minutes to finish what he thought was a good anchor.. people make things so difficult for themselves it's ridiculous.

This is turning in the good karma thread! Good job Dip helping out the Nears team out. Didn't seem like that was headed in a very good direction. Regarding Three Doves, first burn The Swain and get the Gray Dick. Second you would have found it. You just head up in the general direction following the "path of least resistance" until you get presented with a thin crack up a steep section with some some "modest features" to work with to the right side of the crack. The path is clear but not easy here although you have at least two ways of doing it. I thought it went at 5.9. My second, a better leader than me, tackled it differently than I and made it into awkward 5.10. YMMV. Probably just as well you didn't head up in the heat, definitely could have been a "buttering off" situation.

Laid low this weekend due to heat forecast. Wondered out to Crow Hill Saturday mid-day and was surprised to find a bunch of buds out. Wasn't nearly as bad as it was forecast to be. Low humidity, breeze and some shielding high clouds made for a pleasant day. Sunday morning ran out and did some solo TR and bouldering before Grandpa duties at the local pond.

Dip, Sorry I missed you. I would have loved to catch up with you. I climbed from 6AM to 1ish on Friday and Saturday. It was really miserable. Wet on friday AM and HOT HOT HOT. I was outrageously whipped by the heat.

Let me know when you are going back...let's climb together. Glad you could rally the troops to get the climber off the rock.

I can remember (many years ago) when Mitch and I rescued a guy dangling 40 feet off the ground, midair, at Nelson Rock Preserve. It was March, snow on the ground, sun was setting and the guy was in a panic. It was starting to get cold and he was convinced he was going to die of hypothermia. He was very grateful when he touched down on terra firma.

I am headed back up to the Gunks to climb on Friday and Saturday. Sport climbing for me on Weds. Regrettably, I am not in sport climbing shape (the Bird is pretty overhung), as such I am sure that I will be struggling up every climb.

It was a long weekend last weekend up here in Canada, so I spent the weekend at my parents' cottage with a bunch of friends. 3 of those friends were climbers, so we spent time climbing Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Saturday and Monday were at a little (about 25m/80') cliff across the lake and up a bit, which we've been developping. A mix of lead and top-rope, some stuff we climbed last year on Saturday. Then Monday my friend set-out up a route that he thought might go. He got part way up, and while trying to set a small tri-cam in a horizontal, unbalanced and fell, caught by a BD #4 nut he had set. He was about 2m above his last piece -- so probably about a 5m fall, but he came out essentially uninjured (though he has a good scrape mark in the middle of his back.) Unfortunately, he dropped the tri-cam (and the two others racked with it) when he fell. He lowered, found, them, then lowered off. I headed up on his gear, then lead the rest of the climb. Climbing into the unknown, not knowing whether something will go or not, whether it will protect or not, is always exciting.

On Sunday, we canoed over to a big rock/boulder (maybe 6-7m high) at the lake's edge, and had some fun doing some DWS on it.

Also, there was good food, swimming, canoeing, drinking, board games, and otherwise a fun time at the cottage with friends on a weekend of perfect cottage weather.

Hey, I have an idea...why don't you invite us all up to your cottage? We could develop the area with you!

I was already planning to do another climbing & developping weekend with local climbers/friends the next weekend that my parents and sisters won't be at the cottage. Inviting others along would be cool, though it might be a bit of a long drive for many of you.

Good on you, Dip, for helping those people in the Nears. Hard to fathom that they didn't know you could just walk off! You did a good thing there.

Gail and I made the best of our couple of half days in spite of the heat. She really indulged me coming out in this weather and meeting my scheduling needs. I wanted to go no matter how hot it got, as I was desperate to get out in the Gunks after being unable to arrange any climbing there for over a month. But I don't know why anyone else, without my scheduling problems, should have felt obligated to come out there with me.

The first day in retrospect seems like nothing but suffering. Climbing wet rock in high humidity isn't that much fun; who knew? By the time the rock really dried out it was beastly hot. It was still fun leading Modern Times for the second time this year-- that climb is good no matter what the conditions are-- and watching Gail take a huge swing out into space as the second was pretty amazing too!!

It was actually enjoyable in the early morning of the second day before it got too hot. Higher Stannard was quite nice at 6:30 in the morning. Believe it or not we weren't the first party at the Mac Wall. Another pair was finishing up the first pitch of MF when we arrived. The rest of our half-day was spent in oppressive heat. I think I lost five pounds of water weight on Double Crack.

I got out climbing today to the cliff where I broke my ankle 3.5 years ago. I climbined, on top-rope, the climb where I broke it -- and even on top-rope I couldn't pull the move I fell on. I climbed past that section with a different sequence, but I just couldn't make myself do that exact same move. Strange how well my body remembers that bit.

Seth...it's always a pleasure to climb with you, even if it is at 6AM and raining.

Dip...Ask Seth about his broken ankle...not sure if he has re-lead the climb where he slipped off and busted his ankle.

I spent Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday climbing. I worked Thursday, climbed late in the afternoon at Peterskill. It was SO hot that we needed to stick to single pitch climbs in the shade. Peterskill has a lot of climbs in the shade. I had only been to Peterskill one other time, fortunately, I was with someone who knew the crag (but none of the names or grades of the climbs). The climbs were fun (we have no idea what we climbed, I think we started on an 8, moved over to a hard 10, then back to an 8). My partner's rack was less than inspiring (all 80's gear and not a lot of it). As such, I TR'd since I did not have my rack. Note to self: If I go back to Peterskill, bring bug spray. The mosquitoes were relentless. It might be worth a trip back, it would be fun to lead the climbs that we did (not the 10, it was awkward and hard).

Friday was also very hot and humid. We stayed on single pitch climbs until the end of the day when the sun moved around the cliff. I had fun, but, everything felt a bit greasy due to the humidity. My partner Jen, lead the third pitch of RMC. She is a very new leader and I was impressed that she was willing to use my rack and lead something that she wasn't quite sure about. She did a great job and felt very proud of her effort.We managed to knock out 12 pitches, on easy terrain.

Saturday was cloudy and it looked like it might actually rain. It was 74 degrees at 8AM, with no sun it felt pretty good. We started on Bunny because we waited all day on Friday for it, but, it was constantly occupied (Jen wanted to mock lead it). I put it up (I can remember when pulling the bunny roof sucked so much energy out of me, a small sign of progress) and Jen ran up it as a warm up. Our plan was to run it again so that Jen could look at the gear placements. She lead it once before but was so sketched that she couldn't find gear. Meanwhile, a guide showed up with two clients and she saw that Jen was at the top of the climb. She asked if she could jump on when we were done, I said "sure, but, Jen is going to mock lead it and then we will be done". The guide wanted to know how long this would take...I replied that I had no idea, but, they could have the climb when we were done or she could go elsewhere (it was 830AM and the cliff was empty. She had lots of choices). The guide replied that she wanted her clients to start on Bunny. I acknowledged her interest in the climb and then lowered Jen. We transferred some gear and Jen went right back up to do her gear placements. I cleaned the climb and we pulled our rope. Actually, my next plan was to lead Bunny to Retribution, but, I figured I would let the guide have the climb. Fortuantely, the guide took her clients to do some ground school while waiting for us to finish. I like this particular guide, I am giving her the benefit of the doubt, but, I don't think it's right to be pressuring climbers off a climb. As I stated earlier, we tried all day on Friday to get on it and there were two parties of 3 who had it tied up. We never approached them to pressure them off the climb.

We then headed to Son of Easy O. Amazingly the entire wall was empty. I think the 96 degree weather forecast scared people away. I started up and felt good as I made my way to the pin. I worked my way into the corner, got myself woefully out of sequence, didn't down climb and took a 10 footer on the pin. Very glad that pin held, because I didn't place gear in the pod above the pin. (note to self: always back up the pin) I do this climb in my sleep, I never thought I would fall moving into that awkward little corner. I was so embarrassed that I fell. I was looking at sky as I was falling, but, got righted quickly when Jen caught me. Thank you Jen for your attentive belay. I smashed my back into the wall and my left arm has an 8 inch rope burn. Actually, it sounds a lot worse than it was. My back was fine and I didn't notice the rope burn until I was on the GT ledge. Yes, I re-grouped and got my act together, repeated the moves, this time in the correct sequence. I was a bit shakier than I expected on the rest of the climb, but, I pushed through. I plugged lots and lots of gear so that if I took another unexpected header I would be fine.

We rapped off and I ran it again on TR (burning off nervous energy). As we were eating our lunch it started to rain. So, we packed up and decided to run the stair master. I am not sure that Jen actually wanted to do it, but, she was willing to keep me company for part of my self punishment. I did 8 laps in the light rain and called it a day.

I headed back to Philadelphia to see Mitch. He is working 18 hour days to finish our new house. His broken wrist is also keeping him off the cliff. Mitch is pounding out the hours; we are supposed to move into our new place on July 31.

I am missing my husband on the crag, but, I am grateful to all of you who have been willing to partner up with me.

It's been a great season thus far, marred only by the sadness of losing Chris a few weeks ago.

I have not gone back to lead the climb on which I broke my ankle. I have written about it in tedious detail, though, so if you care to waste some time that you will never get back you can read all about it!

I think that situation with the guide on Bunny is utterly ridiculous. I would have just said "look, we're going to be a while." I'm sure she had to know she could go do Double Chin or Dennis or Belly Roll or Black Fly or Sixish or any one of a zillion nearby climbs of similar difficulty.

I have not gone back to lead the climb on which I broke my ankle. I have written about it in tedious detail, though, so if you care to waste some time that you will never get back you can read all about it!

I work for the state. Every day I waste 8 hours I will never get back. I'd love to read it.

Gee Manny! Looks like you are having loads of fun in that squeeze! Wish I could have been there, I think?!?!?

Gail I'm very glad you didn't get more banged up taking the whip. Regarding falling on climbs you never fall on... Sunday after a day of cragging up on Cannon we run up Whitney Gilman to come down the trail to get some mileage in and avoid the nasty descent down the talus field. I am in the process of linking the first two pitches together and nearing the belay ledge. I decided to take a variation that I haven't done in awhile that has you swinging out right somewhat blindly on overhanging terrain over the Black Dike. I get around the little corner and I look up. Damn looked way harder than I remember. I move up and like you Gail get all out of sequence or position or something because it certainly didn't feel like 5.6! Now I am somewhat desperately hanging on to small holds sloping in the wrong direction. I have a pretty good yellow alien in just below me but gee it's a small cam. Where is my next piece? Yikes! All the way down there! Remember we were just "running up" a little 5.6 to end the day! It all ended well. Hung in, clipped a fixed nut and made the surprisingly difficult exit out of the predicament. It was probably 5.6 terrain I just managed to make it into something that felt 5.9.

In the backing up pins category, a couple of years ago I neglected to back up a pin as I normally do just before the flaring, cruxy bit on Tarzan at Crow Hill. I hadn't fallen on this bit on lead, but have pitched off of it before doing TR laps. Had a good nut in 3' below it but nevertheless ... So of course I come off as I was making the exit moves and took a 16 footer. I was pretty rattled, lowered and let my partner finish it. About 4 years later I watch as a guy, albeit 50 lbs heavier than I, take the identical whip on to the pin cleanly snapping it in half. The nut caught him but it was a good ride. To his credit he got back on the horse and finished.

I have not gone back to lead the climb on which I broke my ankle. I have written about it in tedious detail, though, so if you care to waste some time that you will never get back you can read all about it!

I work for the state. Every day I waste 8 hours I will never get back. I'd love to read it.

Today (Thursday) I was a bad weekend-warrior, and I went climbing mid-week. Took the day off work, and everything. Phil and I headed to The Weir, which is one of the larger, steeper, tougher cliffs in the local area. It does have a couple easier lines, and we chose one of those for our route. We went up Adagio (5.7, 5.6, 5.6, 5.8; 80m).

I lead the first pitch, which was fairly sustained, but good. I sent Phil (who generally climbs 3-4 grades stronger than me, but has far less experience at trad leading) to link pitches 2 & 3 -- but he backed off 1/2 way through pitch 3 and lowered to the pitch 2 anchor. I finished off pitch 3 and then lead pitch 4. It took a couple step up, try something, step down; step up, place a piece, step down iterations to get the fourth pitch, but it did finally go clean.

Around Ottawa the grading is...not consistent. There are areas that I think of as "old-school trad", where the climbs were put up in the late 50s through, maybe, late 80s. For these climbs, 5.9, and especially, 5.9+ are scary grades. But all of those grades are stiff.

Then there's newer stuff, put up in the last 20 years or so -- Montagne d'Argent has a lot of this, but new routes elsewhere are similar -- where the grades are a couple notches easier.

I had read from a posting another friend made about The Weir (on a local forum) that the grades there were closer to old school than new school.

So, they seemed stiff for the grade, but I expected them to be stiff for the grade.

I have not gone back to lead the climb on which I broke my ankle. I have written about it in tedious detail, though, so if you care to waste some time that you will never get back you can read all about it!

I work for the state. Every day I waste 8 hours I will never get back. I'd love to read it.

Nice reads dude. Super insightful. I have a hard time putting my internal ramblings down on paper. Events and information I can do, but my brain's so all over the place from one day to the next that i find it challenging to capture what I was thinking in words. You appear to be quite good at it.

Have a good weekend all. I'm off to Old Rag. In July. Should make for a pretty good adventure/suffer fest, provided I don't get devored by this forest of head high stinging nettles i keep hearing about.

Gail I'm very glad you didn't get more banged up taking the whip. Regarding falling on climbs you never fall on... Sunday after a day of cragging up on Cannon we run up Whitney Gilman to come down the trail to get some mileage in and avoid the nasty descent down the talus field. I am in the process of linking the first two pitches together and nearing the belay ledge. I decided to take a variation that I haven't done in awhile that has you swinging out right somewhat blindly on overhanging terrain over the Black Dike. I get around the little corner and I look up. Damn looked way harder than I remember. I move up and like you Gail get all out of sequence or position or something because it certainly didn't feel like 5.6! Now I am somewhat desperately hanging on to small holds sloping in the wrong direction. I have a pretty good yellow alien in just below me but gee it's a small cam. Where is my next piece? Yikes! All the way down there! Remember we were just "running up" a little 5.6 to end the day! It all ended well. Hung in, clipped a fixed nut and made the surprisingly difficult exit out of the predicament. It was probably 5.6 terrain I just managed to make it into something that felt 5.9.

Bill, you sure you didn't do the 5.8 version that goes right?

I haven't posted here in a while, but Tiff and I recently got back from a trip to Thailand. It was amazing! We climbed 9 out of 11 days. It is extremely hard to climb even close to you limit like that, so we ended up doing a lot of 10's/low 11's.

I did have one climb that I was super excited about. Its called Lord of the Thais and is a 5 pitch 12b. The 3rd pitch in particular, which goes at 12a, is described on mountain project as one of the best bolted pitches on the planet. The guidebook said that the wall gets afternoon shade. What it neglected to say is that SOME of the wall gets afternoon shade. The upper crux pitches of MY climb get sun ALL day at this time of year.

We started up the climb shortly after noon, assuming that the shade would be coming. The bottom of the climb had started to see some shade, so I was optimistic. The first pitch is about 10a and was super fun. The second pitch was 11a/b and was even better. I was starting to get psyched but also a little concerned. This last pitch was mostly in the sun. It ended on a huge ledge that was half shade. While belaying Tiff up I was starting to feel fried even though we lathered on the sunblock. Although this pitch was harder, I didn't expect Tiff to have too much trouble with it. She hung a few times and when she got to the ledge told me that she basically did the pitch blind due to the sweat covering her eyes.

Decision time. "The Best bolted pitch on the planet" was next. We are both starting to feel the effects of the sun and I don't think it's a good idea to keep going unless we get some shade. It had to be over 100 degrees in the sun. Since the ledge is half in the shade, we decide to wait in the shady part in the hopes that sun cooperates. We waited on the ledge for an hour and a half. My eyes were glued to that shade line, watching it like an idiot hoping that the sun would take a left turn. We finally decided to go down. We both ended up getting pretty bad burns, so in retrospect it was the right decision. No sense in getting sunstroke on our second honeymoon. Plus the climb will be there when we return, hopefully during the right time of year.

Other than that disappointment, we had a fantastic time. We climbed almost every day, took a Thai cooking class, had a mini adventure when our long tail boat driver got us stuck on a big rock, and drank many a cocktail and/or beer while watching fire shows.